I am a Partner with Future Workplace, an executive development firm that assists organizations in re-thinking, re-defining and re-imagining their corporate recruiting, learning & talent management strategies to prepare for the 2020 workplace. I am the co-author of the best selling book, The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop & Keep Tomorrow’s Employees Today (Harper Collins) and also the author of two books on Corporate Universities: Lessons In Building A World-Class Workforce.
I have spent much of my career in marketing, human resources, and corporate learning roles and now I consult for FORTUNE 1000 firms. I actively follow and write about mega trends of globalization, multiple generations and social media with an emphasis on how these trends impact the workplace of the future. I live in New York City and enjoy the energy of living and working among 8 million people.

Job Hopping Is the 'New Normal' for Millennials: Three Ways to Prevent a Human Resource Nightmare

The average worker today stays at each of his or her jobs for 4.4 years, according to the most recent available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, but the expected tenure of the workforce’s youngest employees is about half that.

Ninety-one percent of Millennials (born between 1977-1997) expect to stay in a job for less than three years, according to the Future Workplace “Multiple Generations @ Work” survey of 1,189 employees and 150 managers. That means they would have 15 – 20 jobs over the course of their working lives!

So what would all this job-hopping do for young workers’ careers? For applicants, job instability on a resume could come at the cost of the dream job. For years, experts have warned that recruiters screen out chronic job-hoppers, instead seeking prospective employees who seem to offer longevity.

Talent acquisition managers and heads of Human Resources make a valid case for their wariness of resumes filled with 1-2-year stints. They question such applicants’ motivation, skill level, engagement on the-job and ability to get along with other colleagues.

These hiring managers worry they’ll become the next victims of these applicant’s hit-and-run jobholding. For companies, losing an employee after a year means wasting precious time and resources on training & development, only to lose the employee before that investment pays off. Plus, many recruiters may assume the employee didn’t have time to learn much at a one-year job.

The Upside of Job Hopping

But for newly minted college graduates, job-hopping can speed career advancement. According to a paper out of the St. Olaf’s Sociology Department entitled “Hiring, Promotion, and Progress: Millennials’ Expectations in the Workplace,” changing jobs and getting a promotion in the process allows Gen Y employees to avoid the “dues paying” that can trap workers in a painfully slow ascent up the corporate ladder.

Job hopping can also lead to greater job fulfillment, which is more important to Gen Y workers than it was to any previous generation: A 2012 survey by Net Impact found that 88 percent of workers considered “positive culture” important or essential to their dream job, and 86 percent said the same for work they found “interesting.” Job-hopping helps workers reach both of these goals, because it means trying out a variety of roles and workplaces while learning new skills along the way.

And economic instability has erased, especially for younger workers, the stigma that has accompanied leaving a job early. That’s because strategic hopping been all but necessary for as long as they can remember. Workers today know they could be laid off at any time – after all, they saw it happen to their parents – so they plan defensively and essentially consider themselves “free agents.

If that freedom seems an undue privilege, think again. The downside to the freedom they enjoy is financial insecurity worse than any other generation in the past half-century. That’s a sufficient price to pay.

So while Baby Boomers started working with an eye on gaining stability, raising a family, and “settling down,” today’s young workers take none of that for granted. Instead, as shown by Net Impact’s survey, they are more concerned than their predecessors with finding happiness and fulfillment in their work lives

Indeed, since humans have been proven to be terrible at predicting what will make us happy (as shown by Harvard happiness guru Daniel Gilbert), it’s crucial that we find it through trial-and-error.

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What about if you are a contractor in the IT world? My wife has the benefits and many, many positions in the IT world are for contractors. I am not super young, but I am not super old. I have progressed my career by learning and working with new technologies. I don’t feel I am back-sliding. Does contracting mean the same thing as job-hopping?

Outstanding article Jeanne! Thanks for the great insights. As the owner of a boutique executive search and career coaching firm, I can tell you a lot has changed in the way multi-job resumes are perceived over the past 15 years. So long as a candidate can demonstrate a compelling reason for changing and, more importantly, what they learned and how each position enhanced their value and contributions, they can avoid the negative stigma of a “job hopper”. In our coaching practice, we talk about what we call your Professional DNA – Drive.Niche.Accomplishments ™. Employees of any age should focus on identifying their unique DNA, then working to ensure their job is in alignment with their passion. Some employees may remain in alignment for 15 years, others for 15 months. As you stated so well, everyone should consider themselves a “free agent” in the job market these days. Ken Schmitt President/Founder, TurningPoint Executive Search www.turningpointsearch.net

I think one of the largest factors contributing to Gen-Y Job Jumping is that companies do very little to incentivise employees to stay for the long term.

In this economy, employers have workers over the barrel, and in many cases they act like it. Many employees have not experienced an annual raise or holiday bonus in years. Even forgowing many of the values and flexibility, measures could be taken to make employees feel valued.

Corporate greed is another factor, particularly in large companies. We have heard countless stories of our parents’ and grandparents’ generations, givign 10-15 years of their life at a company, only to have the rug pulled out from under them. Millenials watch and learn from this.

In these economic times, employers seems only to be interested in pushing the envelope to see what else they can get away with, not on how to help retain their employees (who make the employers rich) and get through these hard times. This all contributes to job jumping, after all, “if my company doesn’t really care about me, why should I care about staying?”

When things pick up again, and I beleive they will, Millenials will have been at a great advantage. During times of plenty, when employers put up a facade of caring and friendliness, millenials have seen their true colors, and will not allow themselves to be taken advantage of.

With pensions replaced by 401k, this gives employees the ability to job hop and roll-over retirement funds which lends to less commitment. Also, if the culture of an organization, co-worker, or boss is not pleasing…. why not try another company? Most of us realize that we spend 1/3 of our lives at work and would rather not be miserable. Organizations tend to not address problem employees directly which impacts job satisfaction.

I am glad I read this article. I have been a job-hopper myself for a while now and I do see the pros and cons. As a professional, I feel a whole lot more prepared to adapt to different environments and have a wider perspective on how things work, thanks to having worked in different companies, and I must say, I feel I have avoided getting stuck at dead-end jobs really well. The downside is that there´s a myriad of companies that still want young people to stick to one job for over 4 years. In today´s world, with all the cuts in benefits workers deal with, that is also a tricky thing to wish for. I guess the key word is “balance”, finding that company that offers you enough chances to keep growing inside them and keep branching out while still working for them. Not an easy balance to find nowadays, however.

I am glad I read this article, thanks for publishing it. I have been a job-hopper myself for a while now and I do see the pros and cons. As a professional, I feel a whole lot more prepared to adapt to different environments and have a wider perspective on how things work, thanks to having worked in different companies, and I must say, I feel I have avoided getting stuck at dead-end jobs really well. The downside is that there´s a myriad of companies that still want young people to stick to one job for over 4 years. In today´s world, with all the cuts in benefits workers deal with, that is also a tricky thing to wish for. I guess the key word is “balance”, finding that company that offers you enough chances to keep growing inside them and keep branching out while still working for them. Not an easy balance to find nowadays, however.

You are invited to read a fresh, fascinating and timely contribution to the current topical issue of inter-racial families.

Johnny Williams, a debonair likeable young graduate student, raised by a loving adoptive elderly couple started his life journey as an abandoned one day-old, in a basket left at a Westchester church-front. His birth mother was a teenage blond blue-eyed student who returned to her university in California; unable to find peace, even later as a professional magazine editor. Due to Johnny’s hair being peculiarly tangled from birth, he’s forced to permanently keep his hair in braids and to adopt the name DADA because he firmly believes his birth mother must have been from West Africa. His university degree course in Social Anthropology may have been subconsciously driven by his burning desire to find the mother that abandoned him at birth. His fascination with the Yoruba culture inadvertently propels him through some mind-boggling adventurous experiences and meetings in many twists and turns while he is also privileged to fascinate good elderly friends. JOURNEY OF HOPE OR DESTINY adopts Yoruba philosophical worldview to narrate a story that reflects the global influence of race and social construct on different cultures.

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Why do employers automatically assume that the employee is the “problem” when the work history shows multiple jobs? After following one company’s financials, I left realizing they were draining the assets while in a non-growth status. The company was sold six months after my departure with all current employees terminated. Another employer assured me that the position would not incur overtime – a concern I had due to the 3 hours a day spent commuting. Ultimately, I found myself working 50-60 hours a week due to additional job responsibilities requiring my presence. After falling asleep behind the wheel on my commute home, I gave my notice. Yet another job I left due to discovering one of the owner’s (vice-president) skimming. After persuading the other owner (president) to add a procedure that would enhance the accuracy of the daily accounting of receipts, I was let go (in a nice way – due to “down-sizing” with a great letter of recommendation!) I could go on but I believe I’ve made my point.

Being honest one reason people quit and leave is because they get tired of the drama on certain jobs. This is even after the manangement has briefed and given classes and training to stop all this harassment ,off the wall talk,gossipping and back biting. A lot of people who work at times just want to get the job done and go home and live their private personal lifes. A % of people could care less who is sexing who when they are not at work,who’s gay or lesbian. Who drinks or use drugs or what religion or god somebody believes in. It’s a form of all this political correct or in correct non-sense. People who quit jobs get even more tired of certain management people abusing them with the way a person’s work schedule is done. So I know exactly why people quit certain jobs. They are just tired of certain people bringing their negative energy to work on a regular.

One of the reasons that I have ‘hopped’ so much is because I’ve been recruited under false pretenses several time. An employer that offered ‘free’ health insurance, but didn’t offer any at all by the time I became eligible. An employer who hired me for a full-time management position, and after the 3 month probation and training period I was told that there was no management or full-time position available, but I could stay on part-time. Employees aren’t the only party that has changed in the last few decades.